Saturday morning we packed up to leave our little cottage in the woods and drive 3 hours (took us 4) to Pigeon Forge, TN. What's in Pigeon Forge you ask??
DOLLYWOOD!!!
It POURED rain on us almost the entire drive. Hence it taking longer than it should have. Shelley was a trooper. At one point, we hit a big puddle of water and it gushed up the sides of us and I think we hydro-planed a bit. Shelley screamed and I found myself saying, "It's ok! You're ok!" a few times. Marcie and Abbey in the back started to tease me for screaming (I mean, lets be honest... it's usually me). It was nice to be able to correct them, haha! I still remember the first time I got caught in a ridiculous downpour in Buffalo. It was nighttime and I couldn't see a thing and pulled over. My friend ended up driving the rest of the way home!
When the rain finally cleared up we could take in the beautiful, green hills. We passed Oak Ridge and it reminded me that Grandmother and Granddad lived there when they were first married and he was working on the Manhattan Project (A-bomb). I'm pretty sure Aunt Marcia was born there.
Another bummer we didn't realize was we crossed time zones so we lost an hour! Booo! The park opened at 10am but we didn't get there until 1 or 2pm.
We didn't even know where to start! So we headed to the right and did the first ride that was open. A kiddie, car ride, haha. Then Marcie and I got stuck behind a fragrant, Indian family in line for a swing ride. There was seriously NO getting away from the smell. We finally resorted to hair mustaches.
On guard!
A foot long corn dog is obviously the key to any good day at a theme park.
If you couldn't tell, the whole "theme" to this theme park is woodsy! It's in the Smokey Mountains, where Dolly grew up and reminded me a bit of Knott's Berry Farm. But way more authentic.
There was a legit, steam engine train you could ride that takes you a little bit into the mountains. They actually prepared and warned you about what to do if cinders got in your eyes! I couldn't help but think of my mom on this... she loves trains.
So pretty, right? There was an ACTUAL babbling brook that ran through the whole park. Beautiful, blossoming trees everywhere and green as far as the eye could see.
We had the PERFECT weather too. Apparently, the rain caught up to Dollywood the next day, but we were blessed with incredible weather.
This is a replica of the one room cabin that Dolly was raised in, not far from here. It's filled with all the real items from her home. I watched a documentary about her before our trip that was really interesting. She is the 4th of TWELVE children. They were dirt poor farmers and her father paid the doctor who delivered her with a bag of cornmeal. She really seems genuinely kind and humble and of course is beyond talented. She's been married to the same man for 52 years! He hates publicity though and has only seen her perform once. I thought that was crazy.
We could not convince Abbey to go on the log ride, so we splashed through it just the three of us! It was one of my favorites.
From there, we just followed our way up the main path, only chickening out of one roller coaster. Ahem. Let me make a correction. The OTHER THREE chickened out, and I just didn't want to stand in the line the rest of the way by myself. Big babies. :) If we could have just confiscated Marcie's phone so she couldn't look up speed and velocity stats on the rollercoasters, we might have been fine. ;) (They did redeem themselves, but going on the Wild Eagle though!)
We went on one little rollercoaster called Blazing Fury, that's inside a building and surprises you with bursts of speed and dips. It's supposed to make you think you're in a burning building. Turned out to be one of my favorites.
I love this picture. It's in front of FireChaser Express, which we did twice, it was so fun. It's what I took the video on. And it's also where Shelley almost lost her cookies. Gosh, that would have been so great to catch on film. Could have been a scene straight from The Sandlot. But instead of chewing tobacco it would have been foot long corn dog.
Shelley puked in the bathroom instead, but came out ready to eat some more! Thatagirl!
Shelley had asked a local what was the best treat to get at Dollywood and they said the cinnamon bread, hands down. While purchasing, the worker also told us repeatedly it was WORLD FAMOUS bread. Well we had never heard of this world famous bread so we weren't sure what to expect but let me just tell you. It knocked our socks off. We greedily tore off pieces, dredging it in thick apple butter and jam until it was gone before even the pesky gnats could get a taste. Without much shame, we got right back in line to buy another one! I love Shelley for asking the workers how to make it. She wouldn't accept general answers. She wanted to know EXACTLY how to make this stuff. We learned that you have to dunk the loaf in margarine (not butter, because butter burns) and then dunk it the cinnamon and sugar after scoring it 4 different ways. Can't wait to try it at home!
We noticed Dolly's tour bus on our way out and were so glad we walked up to take a peek! We thought it cost extra, but nope! You can go gawk at her ornately decorated, pink bedroom for free! It has two bathrooms and a place just for all her wigs.
We ended the night in the candy and souvenir shops, picking out pralines, fudge and Dollywood shirts. Sure wish we had had a full day here, but so glad we came!
We stayed at a Best Western just a mile from the park and get this.... I found a room that had TWO KING beds! None of us had ever heard of this phenomenon! We were all stretched out in luxury except for when we were snuggling, lol. As we were getting ready to go to bed, the family text feed started blowing up (my parents were in Hawaii sending pictures) so we thought we were hysterical sending our own selfies. I titled this "womb-mates back together again". I died laughing at Marcie and Abbey's picture. Abbey and her shower cap, hahaha.
No comments:
Post a Comment